End of Classical Antiquity
The '''Classical Antiquity' lasted from about 776 BC until 476 AD. The choice of these dates is obviously a Eurocentric view, covering the period from the flourishing of the Greco-Roman world with her complex and often stimulating interaction with ancient Persia, until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Romans thought their civilisation was the best conceivable, and were proud of it. They were not unique in this. The same period saw a series of empires of unprecedented size develop in China and India also. Broadly speaking, they were much alike: they were all based on subsistence agriculture, had well-trained professional armies, advanced bureaucracies, and the weight of tradition was enormous, if different. The classical empires faced common problems associated with the huge cost of the state falling most heavily on the peasantry, and barbarian pressure on the frontiers hastening internal dissolution. If Harappan Culture (2500-1900 BC) was the cradle of Indian civilisation, then the Maurya Empire (322-185 BC) was the first great Indian empire. At its greatest extent under Ashoka (d. 232 BC), the empire encompassed the entire subcontinent, save the southern tip. Nevertheless, it was under the smaller northern Gupta Empire (320-550 AD) that virtually every aspect of Indian culture reached its classical zenith; philosophy, literature, science, mathematics, architecture, astronomy, technology, art, engineering, religion, and astronomy all flourished. By its end, we can sense the presence of a fully evolved Hindu society, with its outstanding expression, the Caste System. Strong trade ties saw India's cultural influence felt as far away as Burma, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. The cultural achievements of classical China are arguably even more extraordinary, not least because they were reach largely in isolation, without the enriching interactions enjoyed by Europe, Persia, and India. Following the gradual collapse of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256), China was eventually reunited under the short-lived Qin Dynasty' '(221-206). This was followed by the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), the first of the so-called five great dynasties of Chinese history; one so important that the term Han is still used today to signify someone who is ethnically Chinese. This long period of peace and prosperity brought the stability necessary for a golden age of culture and learning. And this was a brilliant culture, even if we only consider its technology advances: the Chinese invented the process of papermaking; used engraved text, an key stepping-stone towards the printing press; knew of gunpowder which alchemists hoped might be the answer to eternal life; and they may even have had the stirrup, crucial in the development of heavy cavalry, though clear evidence only appears shorty after the decline of the Han. The search for allies against ferocious neighbours, also saw the Han dispatch envoys to make contact with potential allies. The 13-year journey of Zhang Qian (d. 113 BC) was the first fully documented contact between China and the Roman Empire, and an important step towards the opening of the Silk Road. Although Chinese dynasties would rise and fall, dynastic unity would be restored with a striking continuity thanks to the Confucian bureaucracy established under the Han. All these empires faced similar problems common to the Roman Empire: supporting huge armies and a central bureaucracy, with costs falling most heavily on the peasantry; as well as barbarian pressure on the frontiers hastening internal dissolution. History Classical Antiquity in India If Harappan Civilisation and Vedic Aryan culture laid the foundations early Indian society, then Chandragupta Maurya (322–297 BC) was the founder of the first great Indian empire; the Maurya Empire (322-185 BC). Soon after the departure of Alexander the Great from north-western India, Chandragupta usurped the throne of the Magadha, one of some sixteen petty-kingdoms that dominated the northern part of the subcontinent; Magadha was centre at Patna on the lower stretches of the Ganges. Rapid expansion westwards over northern India eventually brought him into conflict with Seleucid Persia (312-63 BC), part of the empire left behind by Alexander. The result was a treaty in 303 BC by which the Greeks withdrew from the Indus Valley beyond the Khyber Pass, and in exchange the Seleucids received 500 war-elephants. By the end of the reign of Chandragupta's son in 272 BC, the Maurya Empire was the first kingdom in Indian history to truly deserve the broader title of empire, encompassing almost all of north India and reached as far south as modern-day Karnataka. The Greek ambassador, Megasthenes (d. 290 BC), recorded his impressions of India during this period. He described the capital of Patna as a city of magnificent palaces, temples, a university, a library, gardens, and parks. There was a highly centralised government with a large hierarchical bureacracy, regulating an empire divided into provinces, districts, and villages governed by centrally appointed officials. A large standing army and a well-developed espionage system were maintained. Weights and measures were standardised across the empire, and gold, bronze, and copper coins were prevalent, as was barter; there was bustling internal commerce and external trade. About the empire’s inhabitants, Megasthenes is also informative. He distinguished the three religious traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism), mentioned the habit of eating rice, and remarked on the surprising fact to Greek eyes that in India there were no slaves; Indians were not bought and sold in absolute servitude, but were strictly bound by the Caste System. Megasthenes also reported that the king diverted himself by hunting, which was done from raised platforms or from the backs of elephants. The empire reached its greatest extent under Chanadragupta's grandson, Ashoka (268-232 BC), one of India's most illustrious rulers under whom a documented history of India at last begins to be possible. From his era survive many inscriptions bearing decrees to his subjects, carved on a series of rock pillars dispersed throughout the Indian subcontinent. In the beginning of his 37-years reign, Ashoka ruled the empire like his grandfather did, in an efficient but callous and cruel way. He was crowned king four years after his fathers death, suggesting a prolonged power struggle for the throne; some stories say he killed the legitimate heir and his siblings in a remorseless quest for power. As Emperor, Ashoka expanded his empire over the next eight years, from Afghanistan in the west to Assam in the east. In about 260, Ashoka brought the eastern coast of India under his control by waging a campaign against the powerful state of Kalinga, something that his grandfather had already attempted. Kalinga defended itself stubbornly, but lost in a war of considerable savagery. The cost in suffering appalled Asoka, causing him to reevaluate the notion of wars of conquest, and to embrace the Buddhist religion with its principle of non-violence. Ashoka controlled all the Indian subcontinent except for the extreme southern part, and presided over a prosperous and peaceful empire for the rest of his reign. His vigorous patronage did for Buddhism what Emperor Constantine did for Christianity and what the Han Dynasty did for Confucianism: the world owes to Ashoka the growth of one of the world’s largest religious traditions. The vitality of Buddhism under Ashoka may be seen in the first great expansion of for the religion, which had had remained hitherto confined to north-eastern India; missionaries sent to Burma and Sri Lanka did particularly well, while those sent more optimistically to the Hellenic world were less successful. Yet Ashoka did not evangelise with his own subjects, and the central theme of his edicts was respect for the dignity of all men and above all religious toleration. He was seeking in this to establish an official state ideology for a measure of political and social unity in a huge, diverse, and religiously divided empire. Ashoka was most proud of what might be called his "social services": shade trees were planted, wells dug, and rest-houses established along the roads for the benefit of travellers; provisions for health care for men and beasts; officials were instructed to help the poor and the elderly; and great irrigation works were undertaken to bring areas of wasteland under cultivation. Ashoka's benevolent rule proved perhaps not a well-founded policy for holding together the vast Mauryan Empire, because it began to crumble soon after his death. The last Maurya was assassinated in about 185 BC, and thereafter the story of India for four hundred years was once more one of political disunity; a collage of regional powers with overlapping boundaries. The most important process during this period was the result of a new succession of invasions from the northwest. First came the Bactrians, descendants of the Greeks who by 239 AD had broken away from the Seleucid Persia. They were for the most part were confined to the north-western corner, but brought fresh foreign influences once more into Indian culture, as the Hellenistic flavour to the sculpture of the era shows. The Bactrians were the foremost in a current which was to flow for four centuries; among those who followed were Parthians and Scythians. The most consequential was the Kushan Empire (c. 30-230 AD). The Kushana were a nomadic people who expanded out of what is now Afghanistan, into the northwest of the Indian subcontinent around 80 AD. Their heyday was in the time of Kanishka the Great (d. 140 AD), who ruled a vast territory stretching as far as Varanasi on the central Ganges, as well as north of the Himalayas to the borders of China. Straddling the legendary Silk Road, the Kushana Empire helped open-up India to the wider-world and trade became substantial between India, Persia, China, and Roman Empire. The sea was another uniter of the cultures of trading communities; Indian Ocean Trade. Trade with Roman merchants grew so visibly that Pliny (d. 113) blamed it for draining gold out of the Empire; what Mediterranean markets sought were luxuries for which they could little offer in return except bullion. There are other interesting signs of intercontinental contacts; Christianity appeared first in the western trading ports, possibly as early as the 1st-century AD. The Kushan Empire was also of great significance for Buddhism. The religion found favour with Kanishka, and his active support played a crucial role in its spread to Central Asia and China, as well as later to Japan. Four centuries of dominance by intruders from the west was brought to an end by the rise of a new great Indian empire, the Gupta Empire (320-550 AD), which is considered by historians the high point India's classical antiquity. Its central territory was the same as that of the Mauryas, along the lower stretch of the Ganges around Patna. The rapid expansion of the empire began under its third king, Chandragupta (320-335 AD), who extends his territory so successfully, to include most of the Ganges valley, that he begins calling himself Maharajadhiraja ''(Emperor). He introduced many military innovations to Indian warfare via contact with steppe nomads and Greeks, chief among them the use of heavy-cavalry and horse-archers. The empire was then further extended by his son Samudragupta (335-370) and great-grandson Chandragupta II (ca. 376-415), who received homage and tribute from regions as far afield as the Punjab in the west, Assam in the north east and Madras in the south. Faxian (d. 422 AD), a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, traveled in India at the time, and left an account of his impressions. He described a people "''rich and contented", ruled by enlightened and just kings, who retain political preeminence as much by pragmatism and judicious marriage alliances as by military strength. A decentralisation of authority is evident, with a noticeable tendency for higher provincial offices to become hereditary. The Gupta Empire was not as big as that of Ashoka, but they preserved theirs longer and so stably that virtually every aspect of culture reached its height. From this time north Indian art shows a mature form for all the major religious groups. The finest examples of painting, sculpture and architecture of the period can be found in the caves at Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora; respectively Buddhist, Hindu, and mixed including Jain. The period was also remarkable for its literary achievement and the final flowering of Sanskrit; By this time the spoken languages of India have long been evolving in their own separate directions, but Sanskrit was known and used by a small educated minority; much like Latin in medieval Europe. The court of Chandragupta II was particularly illustrious, in that it was graced by the Navaratna (Nine Jewels), a group of nine great poet and dramatist. Among them was Kālidāsa, whose works dwarfed the works of many other literary geniuses. His masterpieces reimagining stories from Hindu tradition in elegantly languid fashion: Raghuvamsha celebrates the exploits of Rama; and Abhijñānaśākuntala dramatises the story of Shakuntala, the daughter of a famous warrior. Representing a less common genre of literature in the Gupta period was the Kama Sutra ''of Vatsyayana, a manual on the art of love. Intellectually, too, the Gupta era was a great one. Scholars like Varahamihira and Aryabhata come up with the concept of zero and the decimal system, as well as postulating the theory that the Earth moves round the Sun and rotates about its own axis. The two most important ancient treatises on medicine, composed by Caraka and Sushruta, date to this period, as does the development of Chess. Strong trade ties established India as an important cultural centre that greatly influenced nearby kingdoms and regions, including Burma, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and Indochina. The Guptas were themselves devout Hundus, but recognised that the well-being of the empire lay in cordial relations with Buddhist and Jain communities, whose temples received liberal donations. In the era Hindu society fully evolved into its mature classical form, and we can sense a new strictness of conservative religious practice. It outstanding expression was the Caste System, which locked Indians into well-defined groups for marriage and to their occupation. So too was an intensified subordination of women, with an upsurge of child marriage and the practice called Suttee; self-immolation of widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres. There were also new developments in Buddhism with the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism, a more superstitious form of worship that asserted the divinity of the historical Buddha. The first hint of a fresh invasion from Central Asia comes in the reign of Kumaragupta (415–455), from a people known in some Indian sources as the White Huns; we can only speculate whether they were distantly linked to the Huns. He and his son Skandagupta (455–467) managed to rally Gupta strength for a while, but then the situation deteriorated. Adding to the problem, the dynasty became increasingly embroiled in internal conflicts. The Gupta Empire, weakened by these invasions and the rise of local rulers, collapsed completely around 550 AD. Power in north India again devolved to a number of regional Hindu kingdoms. Southern India was largely unaffected by these events, where regionalism had anyway dominated throughout the Gupta era. These small India kingdoms would lack the unity necessary to fight-off a next and most consequential invaders from the northwest; the Muslims. Classical Antiquity in China With the gradually collapse of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256) from the 7th-century BC, constant conflict marked the China of the next five hundred years, as hundreds of states broke away from central rule by Luoyang and proclaimed themselves sovereign. The period was both warlike and intellectually very rich, rather like Classical Greece during the same period. The writing of K'ung Fu Tzu (d. 479 BC) and Laozi (d. 531 BC) in particular stands out. Though the declining years of the Zhou Dynasty cradle of the two most lasting schools of Chinese thought, Confucianism and Taoism, it was brought to an end by a more brutal philosophy, usually described as Legalism. The founders, Xunzi (d. 238 BC) and Han Fei (233 BC), responded to the lawlessness of the age by demanding more teeth for the law. Believing that humans were essentially evil, a strict system of rewards and punishments was to be imposed upon society; "''punishment produces force, force produces strength, strength produces awe, awe produces virtue." proclaimed the Book of Lord Shang. The ratio should be one reward to every nine punishments. By the 5th-century BC, the hundreds of petty-kingdoms had been reduced by warfare and conquest to just seven; the Warring States Period (476-221 BC). The most vigorous of these was the Qin kingdom, occupying the Wei valley. The western-most of the states, between civilised China and the barbarian tribal regions, the Qin learnt from their neighbours how to fight from horseback, instead of cumbersome war-chariots. Their embrace of Legalism also gave them a healthy disregard for claims to preeminence by the feeble state of Zhou. It was under Shang Yang (d. 338 BC) that their understanding of warfare was transformed to focus on total war in pursuit of victory at any cost; remembered today in Sun Tzu's famous work, The Art of War. By 256 BC, the Qin had overran the remnants of the Zhou, and over the following decades defeated the last of their opponents. The Qin ruler who achieved this, and founder the Qin Dynasty '(221-206), gave himself an appropriate new title, Shi Huangdi, the first "''emperor" of China; the title that would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for two millennia, until 1912 AD. Qin, which is pronounced “chin”, also provides the name by which the world has known the region ever since; China. Re-unifying China for the first time in 500 years, inevitably left Shi Huangdi with a lot of enemies, and he rapidly set in place a dictatorship based on terror. Much use was made of an escalating scale of punishments; branding on the forehead, cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, castration, and death. He also suppressed all philosophies save Legalism, ordering the burning of many books and execution of some 460 Confucian scholars. Yet he also enact major economic and political reforms that worked to unifying the diverse Chinese state: he standardised currency, measurements and written language; strengthened communication through road building which in turn helped trade to increase; and commissioned the building of a great wall along the northern border of his empire, although little remains today, and the modern Great Wall of Chine is mostly of Ming Dynasty vintage. Even in death, he made sure he would be remembered, ordering the famous Terracotta Army to accompany him in his tomb. The Qin Dynasty did not however long outlive its founder through the intrigue of palace eunuchs; his chief minister received his own Legalism medicine, dying after suffering each of the first four punishments in turn. Nonetheless, the legacy of the Qin Dynasty was the political ideal that the natural condition of China was as a single entity. With the fall of the Qin Dynasty, China was plunged into another brief chaos. The war ended in 202 BC with total victory for Gaozu of Han, who founded the '''Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD); one so important that the term Han is still used today to signify someone who is ethnically Chinese. It is considered the first of the five great Chinese dynasties, which each controlled the entire area of China for a span of several centuries: the others being the T'ang (618-907), Song (960-1234), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912). Gaozu had realised the ultimate dream of rising up from peasant origins to conquer China. Confronted by the practical problems of running the empire, he embraced Confucianism and made it the exclusive philosophy of the government, setting a pattern that would continue. Later Han emperors experimented with examinations for entry into the bureaucracy, which would reach its mature form during the Song Dynasty as the cornerstone of the imperial administrative system. The Han emperors ruled benevolently, avoiding extravagance in personal behavior, ending the harsh punishments that had characterised the Qin government, and practising tolerance for all other philosophies. Han China reached the peak of its extant under Emperor Wu (141-87 BC), who, by the end of his reign, controlled a vast territory stretching from the Pamir Mountains in the west (modern day Tajikistan), to Korea in the east, and to northern Vietnam in the south. The search for allies against his ferocious neighbours, also saw Wu dispatch out envoys to make contact with potential allies. The 13-year adventures of the envoy Zhang Qian (d. 113 BC) was the first fully documented contact between China and the Roman Empire, and an important step towards the opening of the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean. The subsequent unification of Central Asia and Northern India within the Kushan Empire (c. 30-230 AD) reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from east and west. Intense trade with the Roman Empire soon followed, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk, and by several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk on economic grounds; the import of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold. Meanwhile, yet an easier route between China and India was provided by the sea journey along the coastal, with Calcutta at one end of the journey, and Canton at the other. Merchant vessel may have been trading along this route as early as the 1st-century AD. By the 8th-century India Ocean Trade was flourishing, and stretched from the Swahili city-states in the west to Java in the east. This long Han Dynasty period of peace and prosperity brought the stability necessary for culture to again thrive. And this was a brilliant culture, centred on an imperial court with huge, rich palaces. No physical architecture survives from the Han Dynasty since they built in wood, but wood can be easily repaired, and the conservative tendency in Chinese culture means that the general style seems to have changed little in the 2000 years. Schools were established throughout the empire to foster literacy and teach Confucian precepts. The Huangdi Neijing, China’s earliest written record on medicine, was codified under the Han. Many scientific and mathematical innovations were made, notably by the famous polymath Zhang Heng (d. 139 AD); for instance, the Chinese came-up with the method of Gaussian elimination, unknown in Europe until the early 17th-century. Several important technical advances were also made: the Chinese skill in working bronze was applied to the invention of the crossbow; paper was invented in 105 AD according to the traditional date; and engraved texts in AD 175 by Confucian scholars eager to copy important texts, an key stepping-stone towards the printing press. Chinese alchemists even experimented with a "black powder" in the search for the answer to eternal life; it turned out to be gunpowder, although it wasn't applied to warfare until after 1000 AD. The Han Dynasty shared power with both the landed gentry and appointed ministers of the imperial bureaucracy, who themselves largely came from the scholarly gentry class. It was plagued throughout by endemic economic problems. While there was a general rise in prosperity, the landed gentry gathered more and more land under their personal control, and the life of peasants became increasingly difficult; indeed, the question of land ownership would be a recurring theme in Chinese history. In 9 AD, the Han were briefly usurped by Wang Mang (d. 23 AD), the acting regent, on a platform of land reform and wealth redistribution. However, his reforms proved poorly conceived and executed, and the Han soon recovered the throne, with the capital now moved east to Loyang. Under the capable emperors Ming (57-75 AD) and Zhang (75-88 AD), much of the former glory of the dynasty returned, with territories lost during the chaos reclaimed. However, disputes between the landed gentry and the peasants continued, and after several decades of peasant uprisings, the Han were eventually toppled in 220 AD. The three centuries after the Han were a time of chaos; the Period of Disunion (220-589 AD). The Chinese Standard Histories identify no fewer than ten dynasties and nineteen separate kingdoms during this time. Yet China’s most important achievements not only took place during periods of unity. For instance, the first clear evidence of the stirrup appeared, crucial in the development of heavy cavalry. One of the most important developments was the flourishing of Buddhism. The first Buddhists had reached China along the Silk Road in the 1st-century AD, where they were largely welcomed by the indigenous Taoists as kindred souls; both believe in a withdrawal from the everyday business of life, and both differ profoundly from the worldly philosophy of Confucianism. Despite the division of the country, Buddism's success was indeed astonishing, and their carvings in China stand as visible proof of their wealth and energy. The Longmen Grottoes near the ancient capital of Loyang are some of the finest examples. In sheer quantity, if in nothing else, they would be a phenomenon in the history of sculpture; some 100,000 separate figures. Another important developments during the Period of Disunity was a strong division between northern and southern China, with the north often coming under the control of foreign rulers and riven by warfare. It was not until 589 AD, that the short-lived Sui Dynasty (589-618 AD) finally succeeded in reuniting China, who were followed by the next of the five great Chinese dynasties, the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Developments of Classical Antiquity By the end of Classical Antiquity, most of the globe’s surface was then still without civilisation, but what was civilised fell into relatively few zones in each of which powerful, distinctive, often self-conscious and largely independent traditions were at work. Their differences were to go on deepening for another thousand years or so, until by about 1453 AD mankind was probably more diversified than ever before or since. One result was that Chinese, Indian, Western European and later Islamic civilizations all lived independently long enough to leave ineradicable traces in the ground-plan of our world. Everywhere, the weight of tradition was enormous and unquestionable, if different. Of course, variety in cultural development had already produced different technologies. Ancient Chinese thinkers in particular made among the most important technological advances in the history of the world; the so-called Five Great Inventions of Chinese culture. By the end of Classical Antiquity, two of the five were already well-developed; papermaking and stirrups. The other three had made considerable strides: gunpowder, printing press, and compass. The Chinese were making various uses of saltpeter by the end of the 1st-century AD and would properly understand gunpowder by the mid-9th. They were printing with engraved text by the 2nd-century, although it would be the Koreans who finally achieved the first printing press in the early 13th-century, in part due to the particular challenges posed by the Chinese script. They speculated upon the phenomenon observed in naturally occurring iron oxide which attracts small pieces of iron, and would be applied to the compass during the Song Dynasty. Other technological contributions by China include the crossbow and the raised-relief map. India's great contribution to science were in mathematics. With some interaction with the Hellenistic world, Indian mathematicians made early contributions to the study of the decimal number system, zero, negative numbers, trigonometry, and algebra. Europe obviously had its own contributions, especially by the Ancient Greeks. These concepts were transmitted along the Silk Road between Europe, the Middle East, India, and China, leading to further developments that now form the foundations of many fields of science and technology.Category:Historical Periods